This past weekend, my wife and I (with baby in tow) loaded up the car and headed to the wonderful city of Charleston, SC to spend some time with my Sister and brother-in-law.

Charleston isn’t really know as a super large “beer” town – and the goal of our trip wasn’t to sample everything the city has to offer. However, I would like to take this opportunity to write a bit about the experiences that we have had.

Whenever arriving into town, one of our number one priorities is to swing by the local Harris Teeter grocery store and pick up a couple six packs. Harris Teeter is a really nice grocery store located on the southern east coast in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida. For a grocery store, they have a really nice beer selection including twenty or so different Belgian Ale’s. If you read through this blog you should be able to ascertain that I am a lover of hoppy beer (IPA and Pale Ale) – as is my wife. So sticking to that passion, we grabbed two different beers to keep us hopped up over the weekend: Palmetto Pale Ale and the Terrapin Rye Pale Ale. I didn’t really see anything else interesting that we hadn’t had before.

Whenever traveling to another city, we have to sample the local brews. The Palmetto Brewing Company is a Micro Brewer located right in Charleston. They continually brew four different types of beer which are readily available on tap and in bottles.

The Palmetto Pale Ale is not really my style. Too much malt and too few hops. The head was very small and didn’t stay around. This is not to say it isn’t a good beer – just not for me. Rate Beer gives this ale a score of 70. Also, we had the opportunity to drink the Palmetto Lager on tap while attending a River Dogs baseball game. The Lager was light and drinkable especially during the incredibly hot weather that has been sweeping much of the country.

I was really impessed with the Terrapin Rye Pale Ale. I think that some might be turned off by the fact that this beer is brewed with rye as opposed to barley. It is quite rare to find beers brewed with rye. Terrapin pulls it off perfectly however. The rye imparts a distinct flavor and is hardly overpowering. Perhaps this is due to the wonderful hoppiness delivered by five different types of hops: Amarillo, Cascade, East Kent Goldings, Fuggle and Magnum.

The six pack that we had tasted very fresh (or perhaps that is what the beer always tastes like). Overall, this beer was a delight to drink. I think I have seen this beer at our local Publix. I will have to head over there to find out.

You can find more information about this beer as well as other Terrapin beers at their website here.

A previous trip to Charleston took us to the Southend Brewery and Smokehouse. Southend is a small chain with three locations (Charlotte, Charleston and Raleigh). It was a few years ago since we were there so I really cannot comment at this time on the quality of their brews.